Special Ordinance Being Conceived for Development of Kangbook Area

Seoul City government is reportedly considering an ordinance, whose temporary name is Special Ordinance for Balanced Development of Regions (SPBDR). The SPBDR is intended to balance Kangbook (i.e. part of Seoul lying north of Han River) and Kangnam area (i.e. lying south of the river) in development and, thus, to give privileges to Kangbook area.

A city commission, which has been formed to take charge of the drive for the special ordinance, announced on September 15, 2002, “We will enact a special ordinance as early as the end of this year in order to give systematic support to the development and improvement of Kangbook area.”

The SPBDR will contain the following: reasons for giving priority to Kangbook in appropriations and distribution of aids; provisions concerning the schedule of annual development and confirmation thereof; and provisions regarding selection of special projects for balanced development. In addition, expected to be provided in the ordinance is the plan to structure the committee that will take charge of the development projects. The City Council has already passed the appropriations bill for the committee.

The new plan draws attention since it is conceived following the various policies prohibiting real estate speculations and Korea Bank’s head Park Seung’s argument for enactment of Kangbook development special law. Park in a recent interview argued, “It is more desirable to develop Kangbook area even by enacting special laws, than to construct new cities around Seoul.”

One member on the committee said, “Enactment of the ordinance puts into a statute the key goal of the 4th city government composed by election. Our city government intends to reduce the discrepancies between Kangbook and Kangnam. One example is restoration of Chongye Stream. In the past, City gave full support to Kanganm in the process of zoning and attracting prestigious school. Thus, the ordinance has sound grounds for enactment.”

Once the ordinance enacted, it is expected that Kangbook will be developed aggressively.

The development project will focus on, for example, multi-cell structuring of the area as central business district (CBD), para-CBD, region-oriented zoning and district-oriented zoning in order to lay foundations for advancement centered around those cells; on building up of better educational environment by establishing campuses of prestigious high schools now in Kangnam area, and special private schools; and on hosting festivals and business activities within the core boundary of Seoul.

The city government launched a committee that is to monitor the balanced development on July 25, 2002, and has operated three task forces in charge of various development projects. The committee is expected to come up with a comprehensive development project by October.

Young-A Soh sya@donga.com